AGORAPHOBIA - Free Album Download!

http://www.zshare.net/download/130180510e92570f/

It's finally here! Download it and tell me what you think!

Here's my gibberish about it:

Agoraphobia is an album that I spent a lot of time on. This was not my original intention. My previous album, Volcano Insurance, was made up of material from three albums I tried to make and never finished. I had about fifty tracks to wade through when I was putting it together. I decided for my next album, I would make a better plan and stick to it. The album would have eleven songs and that is all I would make for it. I started with the first song, Dreadtro (originally Deadtro), then moved to the last song, Bullies (originally bulliescanteachyoualot), then went back to the second song and intended to finish the rest of the album in order. I stuck fairly close to that plan, but had some problems along the way. I will now ramble on about each individual song on the album.

Dreadtro, as I mentioned, was the first song I made for the album and was always intended to be the opening song. I didn't want to do an intro, I wanted the first song to be the long and build up for the entire length. The song ended up slightly more up beat than I originally intended, but I think it worked out for the best. It is a bit longer than it should be, but beginning a trend that persists through out the album, I was a little too in love with it as I was working on it. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but I think a minute or two could have been cut out and the song (along with several other songs on the album) would have benefitted. This is still one of my favorites, though.

Disposable was the third, and fourth, song that I made for the album. The intro, which features a vocal sample from Aesop Rock, was created separately, directly after completing the rest of the song. I liked the song, but I thought there needed to be something quick and simple after Dreadtro before launching into another song that takes a minute to really get started. I love the drum patterns on this song. I thought several times about cutting off the end, which just repeats an element that plays through the background of most of the song several times, but in the end, I decided it was one of the only extended repetitious parts of the album that was actually appropriate. It blends quite nicely into the next song, I think.

Fool Me Twice was done right after Disposable in an attempt to lighten the mood and harken back to my older stuff. Specifically, it is in the style of the first half of the album I made between finishing Volcano Insurance and starting Agoraphobia and never released, Mixed Beats 2: The Chocolate Milk Incident. Brujah is on the end of the song, which was basically an accident. I was proud of the catchy simplicity of the drum and synth and nothing else portion at the end of the song, so I cut it out and sent to him. He then freestyled over it mocking horrrorcore rapper Bob E Nite. I liked the parts of his little rap where he said to call him by various names, so I quickly edited those parts out of his verse and stuck them on the end of the song. After that, I added a little interlude beat sampling the theme song from one of the many Fantastic Four cartoons. Do you know which one?

The Newest of the New is the last song from my initial attempt at making this album. I made it right after finishing Fool Me Twice and was very proud to have completed over half of the album in only a few months. "This album will be done in no time!" I thought. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. After this song, I started several more and quit before completing any of them. They didn't meet my quality requirements, and as I said, I intended to complete only eleven songs for this album and put all eleven of them on it. When these songs didn't work out, I stopped working on the album for a while out of frustration. I began working on several other projects with other people. Chad Keck: The Band is about the only thing that got finished. I did an album worth of beats for Grimus, they used two. I did almost an album worth of beats for Epiphany, he never recorded. I did tons of beats for a Raymond Cobbs album that then evolved into More Than Man. We did an ep worth of material, but intended to do an lp, so it never got released. I did several (terrible) beats for ValCor, which never happened. By this time, I was looking back at the six songs I had done for Agoraphobia and thinking "I don't make stuff that sounds like that any more, how could I finish this album?" All very frustrating, Agoraphobia was shelved for about a year. Oh yeah, I don't think I actually talked about this song… it's pretty cool, I guess, but it's by far the worst offender of "too-long-for-it's-own-good" thing this album has going on. The ending of the song was not included originally. I added it when I finally got back around to working on the album again as an attempt to tie, what I thought would be, two drastically different sets of songs together. The part of the song features a sample of an acoustic version of a Dresden Dolls song that was recorded at a radio station in Germany. It also features a vocal sample of Slug from Atmosphere.

The News is the only song on Agoraphobia that was originally intended for another project. This was a beat I did for Raymond Cobbs. He didn't like it, I loved it and when I got back to working on this album, I thought it needed a quick, simple, up beat hip hop break. I also thought it was kind of funny to put songs called Newest of the New and The News next to each other on an album.

The Ballad of Cecil Tucker was the first song I did in my second attempt to make this album. While I was mostly listening to and being influenced by Massive Attack (mainly Mezzanine) and Portishead (mainly their self titled album) for the first half of the album, by this time I was obsessing over the 13&god record (which is way underrated, in my opinion) and the Dresden Dolls. Can you tell? Also, do you know where the name Cecil Tucker is from? It's from the best TV show ever, The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Cecil Tucker is the janitor that drew the flip book of a clock's hands spinning in big Pete's history book. I thought it was appropriate for the title of the first song done for an album after wasting a year doing other crap that never went anywhere.

Red Def features the heaviest sample use on the album. The whole song based around a Fiona Apple sample. There was a different version of this song done right after Cecil Tucker that was even closer to completely ripping off the Fiona Apple song (if you can believe that), but this final version was done later and I believe was the second to last thing completed for the album.

Persistence is my version of a break up song. I mentioned that The News was the only song originally intended for a different project, well this is the only song originally intended for no project. I just came home in the middle of the night after a frustrating evening with a girl and made this to vent. It was months later that I decided to include it on the album.

Tuesday was bar night the semester I turned twenty-one at college. I tried to tell a story with this song, which as I well know, I'm not good enough really express in the music. Luckily, I have this space to tell you about it, though. The beginning is slow and only has one sound going. This is when I first started going to the bar and was anxious and nervous and… that's pretty stupid, right? Then there's a Patton Oswalt sample and the song really starts but is still laid back, this is when going to the bar with my roommate became a normal thing, but we just went to the cheapest dive, sat by ourselves and got drunk then walked back on campus to sleep. It slowly changes until a Cage sample triggers the change into my version of a club song. "In the club I don't dance, I stand with a glass of vodka," as Cage says, pretty much describes out attempts to go different bars and clubs. It then returns back to the laid back atmosphere as we realized that was a stupid idea.

Hype is the very last thing I did for the album. By this time, I realized that I had gone overboard on some of the lengthy and repetitious songs and wanted to another quick, fun hip hop song in the same vein as The News that still built through out. This is what I came up with, it is also probably the quickest song to come together (along with Persistence). It features another Dresden Dolls sample.

Bullies was the second song I made, which you're probably sick of reading. Anyway, I wanted the album to end on a darker song, kind of a down note. I think this works pretty well. I love the drums shifting from side to side, but I wish I had done more with this song instead of going so repetitious. I thought about cutting this song and doing a new closer, but decided it would be best to stick to the original plan. I guess that was for the better, this isn't one of my favorite songs on here, though.

Now, about the cover. I wanted it to be linked stylistically to the cover of Volcano Insurance, and I wanted it to actually portray Agoraphobia. I came up with the basic idea while doodling instead of taking notes in college and refined it through dozens more sketches in dozens more classes. For the final cover, I drew in pencil with a ruler on parts and then inked it freehand with a sharpie. My scanner was broken, so I actually just took a picture of the drawing and then fixed it up in Photoshop. I have to say, I really dig the cover.

All in all, this album took me over two years to make. Than includes the one year plus hiatus after making the first half, though. It is by far my favorite thing I have ever done, despite flaws I mentioned and I hope someone else can enjoy it at least a little bit.

Top 13 Albums of 2007

So I was going to make my "Top 10 Albums of 2007" but I came up with 15 albums I wanted to put on it. I managed to whittle it down to 13 and decided that that was good enough. I'm not going to give much of an explanation for why I picked these because I'm no good at that. I am including a YouTube video for each, though. So here it goes:

13. Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth

I didn't get as into this album as I did his last, Shadows on the Sun, but it is still an excellent album. My favorite song is "Uncle Sam Goddamn" which there is a video for, so watch that.

12. Beastie Boys - The Mix Up

When I heard the Beastie Boys were coming out with a new album already (a three year gap is nothing for the Beastie Boys), I was really excited. Then I heard the album had a "60's theme" and I was confused. Then I realized it was all instrumental and, while more fully realized as an album, not totally different from their "In Sound From Way Out" compilation that I paid way too much for an import copy of in middle school. By that time, it was about to come out so I just bought it and enjoyed it.

11. Sole and Skyrider Band - s/t

This album just came out in October and I haven't listened to it too much yet but it's Sole with a live band that doesn't venture too far from his usual sound while still adding new depth because… y'know, it's a live band.

10. Macromantics - Moments in Movement

This is a really fun album, it should be a huge pop radio hit. Unfortunately, female MC's are not allowed (don't you dare mention Fergie) and her Australian accent is probably also unacceptable on US radio.

9. Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust

Saul Williams+Trent Reznor=WIN. Download the album, if you haven't: http://niggytardust.com/

8. Rob Sonic - Sabotage Gigante

I loved the beats on Rob Sonic's last album, Telicatessen, but was otherwise pretty ambivalent towards. He stepped it up big time on this album lyrically. "What's good like referees with two arms erect?" That line is just funny but there is some really good stuff on here.

7. Robert Rodriguez - Planet Terror Soundtrack

This is probably the first time a soundtrack has ever made my list. Robert Rodriguez made something worthy of John Carpenter, this is the best non-orchestral score I've ever heard and the only one that's likely to get played in my car.

6. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

I've never been a big NIN fan, but the viral marketing for this album pulled me in and the album was more than worthy of it. This was real viral marketing, by the way, not "viral marketing is hot, go buy some CRAZY URL's and let's make some commercials for YouTube!" Speaking of YouTube, please forgive the incredibly corny video, it's a great song.

5. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

I don't like this as much as Bazooka Tooth, but Aesop Rock stayed true to his word in making an album full of stories. Bazooka Tooth was one big, hectic sound scape full of lyrics that made his other work seem straight forward and simple. He couldn't take it any further in that direction so he went in a totally different one.

4. Atmosphere - Sad Clown Bad Summer 9/Fall 10/Winter 11

Okay, so this is actually three EP's, but together they make a really good album. Sunshine, from Sad Clown Bad Summer 9, was my official "leaving work at 6 AM" song all Summer and always cheered me up after dealing with Larry all night… but that's a different topic all together.

3. Blockhead - Uncle Tony's Coloring Book

Blockhead doesn't get nearly enough credit for his solo material. He is hailed for his production work with Aesop Rock, but for me, his album surpassed Aesop's this year. As for the video… I dunno what's up with that. Looks like footage from a bad reality show, it's not an official video but it's all I could find and the song is great.

2. Hangar 18 - Sweep The Leg

Hangar 18 are the most underrated group in all of hip hop. Their second album is a huge leap from "The Multi-Platinum Debut" which I loved, but tended to stick to one sound and pretty much every song was filled with double time fast raps full of abstract lyrics that you couldn't even understand on the first listen. This time, the beats are much improved and raps have a lot more variety.

1. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

I really had no choice to make, this was by far my favorite album of the year. I can't do it justice in my explanation, so just listen to it.